JOHN MILTON (1608-1674)

PARADISE LOST: BOOK I

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*Original Text: John Milton, Paradise Lost. 2nd edn. 1674.

*First Publication Date: 1667 (ten books).

*Representative Poetry On-line: Editor, I. Lancashire; Publisher, Web Development Group, Inf. Tech. Services, Univ. of Toronto Lib.

*Edition: 3RP 1.239-56. © A. S. P. Woodhouse and Hugh MacCallum, Dept. of English (Univ. of Toronto), and Univ. of Toronto Press 1997.

In-text Notes are keyed to line numbers.

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1 Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit

2 Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste

3 Brought death into the world and all our woe,

4 With loss of Eden, till one greater Man

5 Restore us and regain the blissful seat,

6 Sing, Heav'nly Muse, that on the secret top

7 Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire

8 That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed

9 In the beginning how the heav'ns and earth

10 Rose out of Chaos; or if Sion hill

11 Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flow'd

12 Fast by the oracle of God, I thence

13 Invoke thy aid to my advent'rous song,

14 That with no middle flight intends to soar

15 Above th' Aonian mount, while it pursues

16 Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.

17 And chiefly thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer

18 Before all temples th' upright heart and pure,

19 Instruct me, for thou know'st; thou from the first

20 Wast present, and, with mighty wings outspread,

21 Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast Abyss

22 And mad'st it pregnant: what in me is dark

23 Illumine, what is low raise and support,

24 That to the highth of this great argument

25 I may assert Eternal Providence

26 And justify the ways of God to men.

27 Say first--for Heav'n hides nothing from thy view,

28 Nor the deep tract of Hell--say first what cause

29 Mov'd our grand parents in that happy state,

30 Favour'd of Heav'n so highly, to fall off

31 From their Creator and transgress his will

32 For one restraint, lords of the world besides?

33 Who first seduc'd them to that foul revolt?

34 Th' infernal Serpent; he it was, whose guile,

35 Stirr'd up with envy and revenge, deceiv'd

36 The Mother of Mankind, what time his pride

37 Had cast him out from Heav'n, with all his host

38 Of rebel Angels, by whose aid, aspiring

39 To set himself in glory above his peers,

40 He trusted to have equall'd the Most High,

41 If he oppos'd; and with ambitious aim

42 Against the throne and monarchy of God

43 Rais'd impious war in Heav'n and battle proud,

44 With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power

45 Hurl'd headlong flaming from th' ethereal sky,

46 With hideous ruin and combustion, down

47 To bottomless perdition, there to dwell

48 In adamantine chains and penal fire,

49 Who durst defy th' Omnipotent to arms.

50 Nine times the space that measures day and night

51 To mortal men, he with his horrid crew

52 Lay vanquish'd, rolling in the fiery gulf,

53 Confounded though immortal. But his doom

54 Reserv'd him to more wrath; for now the thought

55 Both of lost happiness and lasting pain

56 Torments him; round he throws his baleful eyes,

57 That witness'd huge affliction and dismay

58 Mix'd with obdurate pride and steadfast hate.

59 At once, as far as Angels ken, he views

60 The dismal situation waste and wild:

61 A dungeon horrible on all sides round

62 As one great furnace flam'd; yet from those flames

63 No light, but rather darkness visible

64 Serv'd only to discover sights of woe,

65 Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace

66 And rest can never dwell, hope never comes

67 That comes to all, but torture without end

68 Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed

69 With ever-burning sulphur unconsum'd.

70 Such place Eternal Justice had prepar'd

71 For those rebellious; here their prison ordain'd

72 In utter darkness, and their portion set,

73 As far remov'd from God and light of Heav'n

74 As from the centre thrice to th' utmost pole.

75 Oh how unlike the place from whence they fell!

76 There the companions of his fall, o'erwhelm'd

77 With floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire,

78 He soon discerns; and welt'ring by his side

79 One next himself in power and next in crime,

80 Long after known in Palestine and nam'd

81 Beëlzebub. To whom th' Arch-Enemy,

82 And thence in Heav'n call'd Satan, with bold words

83 Breaking the horrid silence, thus began:

84 "If thou beest he--but oh how fall'n! how chang'd

85 From him who, in the happy realms of light,

86 Cloth'd with transcendent brightness didst outshine

87 Myriads though bright!--if he whom mutual league,

88 United thoughts and counsels, equal hope

89 And hazard in the glorious enterprise,

90 Join'd with me once, now misery hath join'd

91 In equal ruin, into what pit thou seest

92 From what highth fall'n. So much the stronger prov'd

93 He with his thunder--and till then who knew

94 The force of those dire arms? Yet not for those,

95 Nor what the potent victor in his rage

96 Can else inflict, do I repent or change,

97 Though chang'd in outward lustre, that fix'd mind,

98 And high disdain from sense of injur'd merit,

99 That with the mightiest rais'd me to contend,

100 And to the fierce contention brought along

101 Innumerable force of Spirits arm'd,

102 That durst dislike his reign and, me preferring,

103 His utmost power with adverse power oppos'd

104 In dubious battle on the plains of Heav'n,

105 And shook his throne. What though the field be lost?

106 All is not lost--the unconquerable will,

107 And study of revenge, immortal hate,

108 And courage never to submit or yield:

109 And what is else not to be overcome?

110 That glory never shall his wrath or might

111 Extort from me. To bow and sue for grace

112 With suppliant knee, and deify his power

113 Who from the terror of this arm so late

114 Doubted his empire, that were low indeed;

115 That were an ignominy and shame beneath

116 This downfall: since by fate the strength of Gods

117 And this empyreal substance cannot fail,

118 Since through experience of this great event

119 In arms not worse, in foresight much advanc'd,

120 We may with more successful hope resolve

121 To wage by force or guile eternal war,

122 Irreconcilable to our grand foe,

123 Who now triumphs and, in th' excess of joy

124 Sole reigning, holds the tyranny of Heav'n."

125 So spake th' apostate Angel, though in pain,

126 Vaunting aloud, but rack'd with deep despair.

127 And him thus answer'd soon his bold compeer:

128 "O Prince, O Chief of many throned Powers,

129 That led th' embattl'd Seraphim to war

130 Under thy conduct and, in dreadful deeds

131 Fearless, endanger'd Heav'n's perpetual King,

132 And put to proof his high supremacy,

133 Whether upheld by strength, or chance, or fate,

134 Too well I see and rue the dire event

135 That with sad overthrow and foul defeat

136 Hath lost us Heav'n, and all this mighty host

137 In horrible destruction laid thus low,

138 As far as Gods and heav'nly essences

139 Can perish: for the mind and spirit remains

140 Invincible, and vigour soon returns,

141 Though all our glory extinct, and happy state

142 Here swallow'd up in endless misery.

143 But what if he our conqueror (whom I now

144 Of force believe almighty, since no less

145 Than such could have o'erpow'r'd such force as ours)

146 Have left us this our spirit and strength entire,

147 Strongly to suffer and support our pains,

148 That we may so suffice his vengeful ire,

149 Or do him mightier service as his thralls

150 By right of war, whate'er his business be,

151 Here in the heart of Hell to work in fire,

152 Or do his errands in the gloomy deep:

153 What can it then avail though yet we feel

154 Strength undiminish'd, or eternal being

155 To undergo eternal punishment?"

156 Whereto with speedy words th' Arch-Fiend replied:

157 "Fall'n Cherub, to be weak is miserable,

158 Doing or suffering: but of this be sure,

159 To do aught good never will be our task,

160 But ever to do ill our sole delight,

161 As being the contrary to his high will

162 Whom we resist. If then his providence

163 Out of our evil seek to bring forth good,

164 Our labour must be to pervert that end,

165 And out of good still to find means of evil;

166 Which ofttimes may succeed so as perhaps

167 Shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb

168 His inmost counsels from their destin'd aim.

169 But see! the angry victor hath recall'd

170 His ministers of vengeance and pursuit

171 Back to the gates of Heav'n: the sulphurous hail,

172 Shot after us in storm, o'erblown hath laid

173 The fiery surge that from the precipice

174 Of Heav'n receiv'd us falling, and the thunder,

175 Wing'd with red lightning and impetuous rage,

176 Perhaps hath spent his shafts, and ceases now

177 To bellow through the vast and boundless deep.

178 Let us not slip th' occasion, whether scorn

179 Or satiate fury yield it from our foe.

180 Seest thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild,

181 The seat of desolation, void of light,

182 Save what the glimmering of these livid flames

183 Casts pale and dreadful? Thither let us tend

184 From off the tossing of these fiery waves;

185 There rest, if any rest can harbour there,

186 And, re-assembling our afflicted powers,

187 Consult how we may henceforth most offend

188 Our enemy, our own loss how repair,

189 How overcome this dire calamity,

190 What reinforcement we may gain from hope,

191 If not, what resolution from despair."

192 Thus Satan, talking to his nearest mate,

193 With head uplift above the wave, and eyes

194 That sparkling blaz'd; his other parts besides,

195 Prone on the flood, extended long and large,

196 Lay floating many a rood, in bulk as huge

197 As whom the fables name of monstrous size,

198 Titanian, or Earth-born, that warr'd on Jove,

199 Briareos or Typhon, whom the den

200 By ancient Tarsus held, or that sea-beast

201 Leviathan, which God of all his works

202 Created hugest that swim th' ocean-stream:

203 Him haply slumb'ring on the Norway foam

204 The pilot of some small night-founder'd skiff,

205 Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell,

206 With fixed anchor in his scaly rind

207 Moors by his side under the lee, while night

208 Invests the sea, and wished morn delays.

209 So stretch'd out huge in length the Arch-Fiend lay

210 Chain'd on the burning lake; nor ever thence

211 Had ris'n or heav'd his head, but that the will

212 And high permission of all-ruling Heaven

213 Left him at large to his own dark designs,

214 That with reiterated crimes he might

215 Heap on himself damnation, while he sought

216 Evil to others, and enrag'd might see

217 How all his malice serv'd but to bring forth

218 Infinite goodness, grace, and mercy shewn

219 On Man by him seduc'd, but on himself

220 Treble confusion, wrath and vengeance pour'd.

221 Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool

222 His mighty stature; on each hand the flames

223 Driv'n backward slope their pointing spires and, roll'd

224 In billows, leave i' th' midst a horrid vale.

225 Then with expanded wings he steers his flight

226 Aloft, incumbent on the dusky air,

227 That felt unusual weight, till on dry land

228 He lights--if it were land that ever burn'd

229 With solid, as the lake with liquid fire,

230 And such appear'd in hue as when the force

231 Of subterranean wind transports a hill

232 Torn from Pelorus, or the shatter'd side

233 Of thund'ring Ætna, whose combustible

234 And fuell'd entrails, thence conceiving fire,

235 Sublim'd with mineral fury, aid the winds,

236 And leave a singed bottom all involv'd

237 With stench and smoke: such resting found the sole

238 Of unblest feet. Him follow'd his next mate,

239 Both glorying to have scap'd the Stygian flood

240 As Gods, and by their own recover'd strength,

241 Not by the sufferance of Supernal Power.

242 "Is this the region, this the soil, the clime,"

243 Said then the lost Archangel, "this the seat

244 That we must change for Heav'n?--this mournful gloom

245 For that celestial light? Be it so, since he

246 Who now is sovran can dispose and bid

247 What shall be right: farthest from him is best

248 Whom reason hath equall'd, force hath made supreme

249 Above his equals. Farewell, happy fields

250 Where joy for ever dwells! hail horrors, hail

251 Infernal world! and thou, profoundest Hell,

252 Receive thy new possessor: one who brings

253 A mind not to be chang'd by place or time.

254 The mind is its own place, and in itself

255 Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n.

256 What matter where, if I be still the same

257 And what I should be, all but less than he

258 Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least

259 We shall be free; th' Almighty hath not built

260 Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:

261 Here we may reign secure, and in my choice

262 To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell:

263 Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heav'n.

264 But wherefore let we then our faithful friends,

265 Th' associates and co-partners of our loss,

266 Lie thus astonish'd on th' oblivious pool,

267 And call them not to share with us their part

268 In this unhappy mansion, or once more

269 With rallied arms to try what may be yet

270 Regain'd in Heav'n, or what more lost in Hell?"

271 So Satan spake; and him Beëlzebub

272 Thus answer'd: "Leader of those armies bright,

273 Which but th' Omnipotent none could have foil'd,

274 If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge

275 Of hope in fears and dangers, heard so oft

276 In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge

277 Of battle when it rag'd, in all assaults

278 Their surest signal, they will soon resume

279 New courage and revive, though now they lie

280 Grovelling and prostrate on yon lake of fire,

281 As we erewhile, astounded and amaz'd--

282 No wonder, fall'n such a pernicious highth!"

283 He scarce had ceas'd when the superior Fiend

284 Was moving toward the shore; his ponderous shield,

285 Ethereal temper, massy, large and round,

286 Behind him cast; the broad circumference

287 Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb

288 Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views

289 At ev'ning from the top of Fesole,

290 Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands,

291 Rivers or mountains in her spotty globe.

292 His spear--to equal which the tallest pine

293 Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast

294 Of some great ammiral, were but a wand--

295 He walk'd with, to support uneasy steps

296 Over the burning marle, not like those steps

297 On Heaven's azure, and the torrid clime

298 Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with fire.

299 Nathless he so endur'd, till on the beach

300 Of that inflamed sea, he stood and call'd

301 His legions--angel forms, who lay entranc'd

302 Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks

303 In Vallombrosa, where th' Etrurian shades

304 High over-arch'd embow'r; or scatter'd sedge

305 Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion arm'd

306 Hath vex'd the Red-Sea coast, whose waves o'erthrew

307 Busiris and his Memphian chivalry,

308 While with perfidious hatred they pursu'd

309 The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld

310 From the safe shore their floating carcases

311 And broken chariot-wheels: so thick bestrown,

312 Abject and lost, lay these, covering the flood,

313 Under amazement of their hideous change.

314 He call'd so loud that all the hollow deep

315 Of Hell resounded: "Princes, Potentates,

316 Warriors, the flow'r of Heav'n, once yours, now lost

317 If such astonishment as this can seize

318 Eternal spirits--or have ye chos'n this place

319 After the toil of battle to repose

320 Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find

321 To slumber here, as in the vales of Heav'n?

322 Or in this abject posture have ye sworn

323 To adore the conqueror, who now beholds

324 Cherub and Seraph rolling in the flood

325 With scatter'd arms and ensigns, till anon

326 His swift pursuers from Heav'n-gates discern

327 Th' advantage, and descending tread us down

328 Thus drooping, or with linked thunderbolts

329 Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf?--

330 Awake, arise, or be for ever fall'n!"

331 They heard, and were abash'd, and up they sprung

332 Upon the wing, as when men wont to watch,

333 On duty sleeping found by whom they dread,

334 Rouse and bestir themselves ere well awake.

335 Nor did they not perceive the evil plight

336 In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel;

337 Yet to their General's voice they soon obey'd

338 Innumerable. As when the potent rod

339 Of Amram's son, in Egypt's evil day,

340 Wav'd round the coast, up-call'd a pitchy cloud

341 Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind,

342 That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung

343 Like night, and darken'd all the land of Nile:

344 So numberless were those bad Angels seen

345 Hovering on wing under the cope of Hell,

346 'Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding fires;

347 Till, as a signal giv'n, th' uplifted spear

348 Of their great Sultan waving to direct

349 Their course, in even balance down they light

350 On the firm brimstone, and fill all the plain:

351 A multitude like which the populous North

352 Pour'd never from her frozen loins, to pass

353 Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous sons

354 Came like a deluge on the South, and spread

355 Beneath Gibraltar to the Lybian sands.

356 Forthwith, from every squadron and each band,

357 The heads and leaders thither haste where stood